Peter Bijur, chairman and CEO of Texaco Inc. and chairman of The Business
Council, has called a special meeting of upstate members of The Business
Council board of directors and other business leaders November 29 in
Skaneateles Falls.
The meeting will focus on how The Business Council and other business
groups can help foster economic recovery upstate
New York's state and local government spending is far above the level
justified by actual need for schools, welfare, health facilities, highways
and other services, a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
shows.
The study estimates the "fiscal need" in each state and compares it
to a national average need
Robert J. Bellafiore, a senior aide to Governor Pataki and former director
of communications for The Business Council, has been named executive
director of the State University of New York Charter Schools Institute.
Bellafiore, who was instrumental in helping enact and implement the
state's charter school law, will serve as the Institute's chief operating
officer, overseeing day-to-day operations of the Institute
More government-driven approaches to health-care issues will erode the
nation's tradition of workplace-based health insurance, leading employers
to pass more health-care decisions and costs directly to workers, The
Council's expert in health policy said in a speech Oct. 12.
"If government continues to expand health-care taxes, regulations, mandates,
and opportunities for litigation, fewer New Yorkers will get traditional
work-based health benefits," said Elliott
Shaw
The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has created
a new program to address environmental-justice concerns and ensure community
participation in the state's environmental permitting process.
DEC has also named Monica Abreu Conley, a senior DEC enforcement attorney,
its first program coordinator to oversee the program
The state Senate has passed a bill to clarify and streamline how New
York approves proposed new power plants.
Governor Pataki has said he will sign the bill, which the Assembly had
already passed.
The Business Council strongly supported the bill, which closes a gap
in a 1992 law that was first passed to facilitate the power-plant siting
process
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has pledged to work with
The Business Council to help New York be "a true leader in e-commerce."
Addressing The Council's Annual Meeting Sept. 24, Spitzer outlined three
areas in which his office's Internet Bureau and The Business Council
can collaborate:
Seeking legal certainty and predictability in e-commerce
New York faces projected budget gaps of $2.8 billion in the fiscal year
starting April 1, and $4.6 billion the next year, a report on this year's
budget by the state Comptroller H. Carl McCall says.
After adjusting for accounting differences from the previous fiscal
year, this year's budget increases spending "at about one and a half
times the rate of inflation," Comptroller McCall said
By Peter I. Bijur
Editor's note: Peter Bijur, chairman and chief executive officer
of Texaco Inc., was elected chairman of The Business Council Sept.
22. This column is excerpted from remarks he made that evening to members
at The Business Council's Annual Meeting.
New York's business community must strengthen its advocacy for New York's
renaissance-because much remains to be done to strengthen our comeback
By Robert Heiferman
Employers who believe that they can save money by simply reclassifying
individuals who work for them as "independent contractors" may be in
for a big surprise.
It has long been tempting to treat people as independent contractors.
Employers are not required to pay social security, unemployment insurance,
and workers' compensation insurance taxes on independent contractors